Nokona glove collectors have wondered about the old Nokona "J" prefix numbers for year and the glove catalog source book lists a number of them for the early 1950s. Bobby Storey there told me that the "J" stood for "Jobber" in that these gloves were sold through jobbers and into institutions in bulk like schools, YMCAs, government places. I just came into possession of a couple of "J" model gloves at of all places, a local garage sale. One is an Andy Skurski J120. Sturski, who's biggest stop after being signed in Fort Worth by Nokona, was for the Hollywood (Stars) in the old PCL. Nothing like making it to Hollywood and becoming a star I suppose. He met his future wife there and they later became successful real estate agents in Las Vegas.
But the real story here is that the previous owner of the two Nokona "J" models said that he got them when he was in the army in 1951. He was very definite about that. So, while we've been speculating as to how these J birds got around, seems like some wound up in the service during the Korean War era.
